Ray Allen just opted in for an 18th NBA season at age 38. That decision was certainly made easier by the fact his 17th season ended with a championship ring, one the Miami Heat would not have won without him. Plus he is still effective — he averaged 10.9 points a game and shot 41.9 percent from three last season.

Which is pretty ridiculous when you think about it. Playing at that level, keeping your body in tune like that for 1,378 games (regular season and playoffs) and deciding at least 82 more at his age was a good idea.

Few players take their health as seriously as Allen (who is in Washington D.C. this week speaking to congress on behalf of the health of his six-year-old son with diabetes).

Allen can thank a Hartford area McDonald’s for teaching him that lesson early on (and he didn’t have to go the full Morgan Spurlock to learn his lesson).

“There was a time in college where before practice I went to McDonald’s and I had a quarter pounder with cheese, I went to practice that day and I just remembered I felt so sluggish out there,” Allen told ProBasketballTalk. “And I was looking around thinking ‘Coach is just working us to hard’ because I just feel so tired. I ask the guys around me, ‘Do you guys feel tired? Because I just can’t move around like I want to” and everybody is like ‘no, I’m good.’

“And I was thinking about it all practice — wow I had a cheeseburger before I came to practice, I can’t do that anymore. From that day forward I started thinking about everything I put in my body that was preventing me from performing. I started realizing it is connected.

“So when I got to the NBA I had a pregame routine, a game day routine. How I worked out affected how I ate.”

Allen’s pregame routine and ritual are the most precise and detailed in the league (Dirk Nowitizki comes close). Allen is nearly OCD about his routine — he doesn’t like it changed. He wants that structure in his life.

He said he has tried to preach that to other players over the years — the usual pattern for players entering the league is that they eat pretty badly for a few years, but as their bodies start to age a little they realize what Allen figured out in college.

“That’s the adjustment,” Allen said. “I think so many people fall out of favor when they get to the NBA because you don’t have a structure. It’s important for a lot of guys, when they go through college, you learn a structure, and you got to carry that structure over (to the NBA). But some guys they get to the NBA, or any professional sport at all, and they say ‘I don’t have a coach breathing down my neck all day I can do what I want eating wise, I can manage my own time and do what I want and stay up late.’ Some guys almost rebel.

“But you almost have to go in the other direction. You have to take this as an opportunity to say, ‘I’m in the NBA and I want to make a lot of money, if I want to be around for a long time, I have to make sure I prioritize this job… The money is really a non-issue; it’s really about being effective and successful at your job. The money will come along with it.”

Allen is more focused now on the health of his son, and that’s why he is in Washington, to lobby for the Special Diabetes Program – legislation focused on multi-year funding of Type 1 diabetes research that congress must renew every couple years.

“My son Walker, he is six years old and he has Type 1 diabetes,” Allen said. “He’s a delegate, part of the children’s congress. Every two years now the Children’s Congress comes to Washington to make sure we continue to hold our elected politicians to task for continued funding, especially for diabetes programs.”

Allen knows this is one place his celebrity and status can help his child and others like him — Allen and his wife have done a number of public service announcements with Walker, and they are personally involved in the cause. Which includes going to Washington every couple years to talk to congress about the realities of the disease and the need for research.

“I just tell them a little bit about who we are as a family and who Walker is,” Allen said. “Basically giving a human side to the story — diabetes is not just a word or a disease, there are people who fight every day to keep their children alive. There are families all across America like that.

“I’m just a dad just trying to make sure his son gets the proper care that he deserves and hope that one day they find a cure. It just so happens that I do have a high profile job and I walk into a room of high profile people and let them know this what I deal with regardless of what I’m dealing with professionally.”

He’s going to get to deal with those professional issues one more year. Thanks to the care he has taken of his body. And with a little nudge from McDonald’s.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The New Orleans Pelicans say rookie guard Frank Jackson won’t make his NBA debut this season after having follow-up surgery to remove residual scar tissue from earlier right foot operations.

The Pelicans say Jackson also received an injection in his foot.

The club says a specialist in New York handled Jackson’s latest procedure.

The Pelicans acquired the 6-foot-4 Jackson through a draft-night trade with the Charlotte Hornets, who selected the former Duke player with the first pick of the second round last summer.

Following the draft, the Pelicans signed Jackson to a three-year contract at the NBA minimum with two years guaranteed, but Jackson needed a second foot surgery last summer to address a setback following his initial surgery last May.

Anyone who watched the Thunder’s win over the Raptors Sunday afternoon in Toronto — especially the final few minutes — thought it was not referee Marc Davis and crew’s finest hour. There were missed calls and three-straight ejections of Raptors players, which all seemed rather hair-trigger (especially coach Dwane Casey, who was tossed for something a fan behind him said).

According to the report, there was only one missed call in the final two minutes: Carmelo Anthony held Pascal Siakam as a pass came to him with 11.7 seconds left, and that should have been called.

What about the play that set DeMar DeRozan off and ultimately got him ejected, the drive to the basket with 33 seconds left (and the Raptors down two) where DeRozan thought Corey Brewer fouled him? The report said that was a good no call:

DeRozan (TOR) starts his drive and Brewer (OKC) moves laterally in his path and there is contact. The contact is incidental as both players attempt to perform normal basketball moves….

RHH shows Brewer (OKC) make contact with the ball and the part of DeRozan’s (TOR) hand that is on the ball. The hand is considered “part of the ball” when it is in contact with the ball and therefore, contact on that part of the hand by a defender while it is in contact with the ball is not illegal.

(I didn’t see it that way, I think the contact was more than incidental, and to me looking at the replay Brewer catches some wrist and impedes the shot in a way that was not legal. Just my two cents.)

The report does not cover the ejections, which are reviewed by league operations but not part of this report.

Three thoughts out of all this:

1) Raptors fans/management/players have every right to feel the calls went against them in this game. As for calls always going against them — as DeRozan complained about after the game — 29 other teams and fan bases are convinced the officials have it out for them, too. I never bought that.

2) The Raptors didn’t lose this game solely because of the officiating. Russell Westbrook was clutch down the stretch, the Thunder were part of it, and the Raptors had other issues, too (Serge Ibaka had a rough game, for example).

3) This loss also does not say a thing about the Raptors in the postseason (even if they went a little too much isolation at the end) — this was their third game in four days, they looked tired and flat at the end. That will not be the case in the playoffs.

Butler is chomping at the bit to return from his knee injury. He sat on the Timberwolves’ bench during their loss to the Rockets last night wearing what appeared to be typical attire for a sidelined player. But dig deeper, and…

Marc Stein of The New York Times:

There's only one @JimmyButler (Exhibit Infinity): Butler sat on the Wolves' bench last night for the first time since his recent injury and word is he wore a distinctly Jimmy item under his blazer and t-shirt … his game jersey